A foreign and a local company are to finance the construction of the biggest mall in the eastern province of Diyarbakır, which is expected to contribute to the ongoing peace process by creating employment and bringing vitality to the economy of the city.

Forum Diyarbakır, a project equally financed by the Holland-based Multi Development Turkey and local Altındağ Real Estate Investment Development Construction Company, is planned to open at the end of 2014.

Multi Development Turkey CEO Hulusi Belgü said the mall would be one of the biggest foreign investments in the city and contribute to the ongoing process to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue by creating employment. We will employ approximately 1,500 locals in the mall, said Belgü at a recent press conference in Diyarbakır, adding that this would contribute to the peace process in the region. “The new investments will contribute to preventing any problems from being repeated in the region,” said Belgü.

Altındağ Construction Company’s General Manager Selahattin Altındağ said he hoped that their project would draw the attraction of other companies to the city. Altındağ Company would make the construction itself, said Altındağ at the same press conference.

Within only four months, around 45 percent of its total 54,000-square-meter leasable area had already been rented out to stores including MediaMarkt, Koçtaş, Cine Maximum, said Belgü, adding that the mall would have around 140 stores in total.

Six more malls in Anatolia

The three-storey building will have an open and an underground parking lot. The two firms have spent 25 million euros on the Forum Diyarbakır so far. Multi Development Turkey has 10 malls across Turkey and is planning to have six more by 2015, by introducing new mall projects to Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Adana, Çorum, Çanakkale and Gaziantep provinces. Belgü said that the Multi Development Turkey’s 10 malls made $3.6 billion annual turnover with around 110 million visitors every year.

Multi Development Turkey is an affiliate of the Netherlands-based Multi Corporation and operates in Turkey with multi-purpose projects such as malls, offices, and residences. Altındağ Construction Company held many construction and infrastructure projects for public institutions such as the Defense Ministry, the General Directorate of Construction, the General Directorate of Highways, the Office of the Prime Ministry, Housing Development Administration and universities.